Enter Into the House of Now

The Azusa Street revival lasted for 1,000 days. It started as a prayer meeting on North Bonnie Brae Street, Los Angeles, California, Pacific Coast. It moved to an old tombstone shop on Azusa Street. The building was 40 feet or 12 meters wide and 60 feet or 18 meters long. But from that small building, the entire world was introduced to the power of Pentecost.

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At the start of the 20th century, few people claimed to have the baptism of the Holy Ghost. At the end of the 20th century, 600 million people alive in the world have experienced the Holy Spirit baptism. It was at Azusa Street that people came from around the world to receive the experience. They came from Africa, Central and South America, Europe and Asia, and even from the Philippines. Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, Azusa became a house of prayer – a revival that shook the world for 1,000 days of nonstop revival!

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Over the years, that revival disappeared at Azusa Street. But before it did, Pr. William J. Seymour got up and prophesied under the power and the unction of the Holy Ghost. He said that in 100 years, another revival would come like the one that came to Azusa Street. Only, this revival will not be in one place; it will happen all over the world. He said that the shekinah glory of God would come down. And 100 years from Azusa, miracles would be poured out like the world had never seen before. That revival would not stop until Jesus comes back for His church.

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In the mouth of two to three witnesses… The other father of modern Pentecost was a man named Charles Parham. His granddaughter recently wrote an article about him. She revealed that at the same week when Pastor Seymour was making that prophecy on the Pacific Coast, her grandfather, Charles Parham, was on the East Coast of the Atlantic. And in the midst of his message, Pastor Parham stopped and came to a complete stand still. Then, he began to prophesy. He said that the outpouring on the early 20th century was the former rain. One hundred years from then, there would come a latter rain that would be greater than the former rain and would sweep the entire globe.

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Again in the mouth of two to three witnesses… On the same year when those two prophecies came, there was a man by the name of Harvey Cher, who was in Houston, Texas. He was looking out from a building in downtown. He was praying for global revival. He had a vision of another world. He saw into the heavens a company of excited angels who were talking among themselves. One of the angels stepped away and began to hurriedly write something on the table, put the pen down, reached down beneath the table and picked up armloads of gifts. Cher said that he saw that angel coming out from heaven toward earth and gifts began to fall out of that angel’s arms. As each gift reached the earth, demonic forces had to go and the power started to be unleashed on men and the world was set on fire with the preaching of the gospel.

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It was not many years ago when Bro. T. W. Barns preached on my home church under the late Pastor Kilgore. Brother Barns saw an angel, too. He said that this angel transformed into a comet of fire that came down out of the heavens and fell into the street of fire where there were valuable treasures and precious jewels. Then, ministers began to pick up these priceless items. The moment they touched them, they were transformed by the power of the almighty God. Barns said that he saw a multitude, a great army across the horizon of the earth. Let me quote what he said, “This gathering consisted of every tribe, tongue and nation – Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Europeans, Russians, Africans and Filipinos!” He said that just before the Rapture, ministers along with the established saints who picked up those gifts reached 100 million souls.

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The Azusa Street revival was over for about a century. Could it be that the Holy Ghost is saying that it’s our time? I tell you that this is the day! This is the hour! It’s for you and your children, even to those who are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. If we would march into this prophesied time, there are some jewels, treasures, gifts and mantles that are awaiting to be picked up. Let us enter into the house of now – it is time!

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Matthew, Mark, Luke and John told us about a town that meant a lot to Jesus. It was not necessarily the most attractive town. Some believed that it was where the lepers hang out. Simon, the leper, had a house there. The town’s name was Bethany. It was near Jerusalem on the eastern slope. The meaning of the town was not so sure. It could mean “the house of misery” or “the house of depression,” but I believe that Bethany means “the house of now.”

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“Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick” (John 11:1-3). It feels like Jesus loved to go to this certain house in Bethany where Lazarus, Mary and Martha were like His substitute family. He favored that house but trouble came in a form of a very severe sickness. Lazarus grew ill. The sisters went to Jesus who evidently was in another town named Bethany. But it was not the same town where the three resided; it was the Bethany beyond the Jordan, 60 miles away.

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When Jesus got the word, He delayed. He did not answer right away. He didn’t come when they thought He should come. As Brother Tenney said, “We are into microwaving but God is into marinating.” God is going to wait until our human potentials are exhausted. And then He’s going to show up and do what only He can do! We are living between “the now and the not yet,” between “the actual and the ideal,” between “the temporal and the eternal.” We live in this moment when we cannot understand what God is doing, why God will not move when we want Him to move.

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There are two words used for time in Greek: “kronos” that pertains to “man’s time, sequential or chronological time,” and “kairos” that means “seasons or God’s time.” What I learned about this is that when God’s time intersects with man’s time, the miraculous begins to happen. The “not yet” comes into our “now.” The Lord is forever in the present tense. He is the present help in times of trouble. He is what you need to get through the day.

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Mary and Martha sang a duet when Jesus arrived four days late. They said that if Jesus had been with them, their brother would not have died (John 11:21). Some people have faith for God in the past. Yet, Jesus told Martha that Lazarus will rise up again (John 11:23). “Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:24). She had faith in God for the future.

What Martha had not realized is that she was looking at the God of the present – the One who said, “I am the resurrection and the life! I am the same yesterday, today and forever!” He is the “I Am,” not the “I Was” or the “I Will Be.”

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There is one moment when Martha said, “But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee” (John 11:22). But the daunting, disappointing reality of a dead brother caused her faith to crash. At that moment, Bethany was a house of misery and depression. But Jesus is looking for faith! He’s looking for someone who will stand up and say, “Even now, I believe!” It doesn’t matter what the enemy has thrown at me. It doesn’t matter what has come against me. He’s looking for someone who has that faith who can turn the “house of misery” into the “house of now.”

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Enter into the house of now! I declare that there will be a hundred-soul revival in your local church. If you will just say, “Even now, I believe!” We are living in the prophesied time from Azusa Street. You’re going to exit into the house of misery and begin to move into the house of now. Revival in your community is about to happen. Your dead dream is about to come to life. That dormant seed of the kingdom that was planted a long time ago will be showered by the warmth of His grace that is causing it to germinate and take root. It will begin to grow and the dream you thought was dead is coming back to life. It is like Jesus shouting, “Lazarus, come forth!” It’s on the way. Enter into the house of now! PH

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* This message was preached by Rev. Ken Gurley at the 2016 UPCPI General Conference and was published in the January-February 2016 issue of the Pentecostal Herald.